Troublesome Topic: WHAT CONSTITUTES TRUE PRAYER?

True prayer agrees with what God desires,

Conforms to God’s will in Scripture,

Comes alongside God in what He is doing

Asks Him to do what He has committed to do,

Seeks His glory.

We should apply this principle to our praying. We need to train ourselves to pray what God is desiring. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive because you ask with evil intent, so that you can squander it on your pleasures.” That is exactly what we have done. We have made prayer about us! How childish! How selfish! Prayer is not about our desires; it is about coming into agreement with God’s desires. True prayer means to come alongside God in His great endeavors, to join God in what He is doing, to ask Him to be what we already know He is, and manifest that to us so we can see it and participate even more.

True prayer asks Him to do what He has committed Himself to do, and do it in our time so we can give Him glory. Therefore, we need to be careful to focus on praying what we know is His will. Prayer always works. James says, “You do not have because you do not ask [God]” (James 4:2). Then he goes on to show that for prayer to work we must follow certain guidelines. We cannot pray selfishly and expect God to answer. That is not praying, that is manipulating.

The next lesson in this series is ASKING FOR FAVORS IS NOT TRUE PRAYER